Ever since lead fragments were found in donated venison on the shelves of North Dakota soup kitchens in 2008, a controversy has raged on whether gun-harvested venison is safe to eat. This topic has no bearing on bowhunting, except that bow-killed deer will be in high demand in soup kitchens, since they are definitely lead free. Not so incidentally, animal-rightists will rejoice at any restriction on the consumption of venison, and you can bet they will get as much mileage as possible out of the situation.

It now appears that lead bullets often do leave lead fragments to one degree or another in deer meat. In the fall of 2008, Minnesota used trained and certified butchers to process all meat going to donation programs, and lead was still found in five percent of the samples. Lead fragments were found up to 18 inches from wounds. Minnesota is now going to X-ray all meat donated to soup kitchens at a cost of 30 cents per pound. Obviously, such expense, if implemented elsewhere, would kill meat-donation programs in many states.

The question then becomes: Are lead fragments dangerous when consumed? When lead was reported in venison in North Dakota, state officials invited the National Center for Environmental Health to come in and sample lead levels in blood from over 700 citizens.

That study, published on October 14, 2008, produced some interesting results. Eighty-one percent of those sampled had consumed wild meat, mostly venison. Eighty-two percent of those who ate venison processed their own meat or had family members process it.

Sixty-two percent of those who ate venison did so at least once a week.

Even though most of the people sampled consumed wild game, none had lead blood levels above the Communicable Disease Center's (CDC) recommended levels. And "the geometric mean of lead in blood among this study population was lower than the overall population geometric mean in the United States." In plain language, lead blood levels for sampled North Dakota citizens -- of which 81 percent regularly consumed wild game -- were lower on average than lead blood levels for United States citizens in general.

Also, children in the study had readings less than half of the national average for children and below CDC concern levels. My guess is that these results are the reason that most states are continuing their hunter-donated venison programs.

However, the North Dakota study did reveal that participants who ate venison had blood levels of lead slightly higher than those who did not eat venison. Those who ate venison within a month before blood was collected had higher levels of lead, and those who ate larger servings of venison also had higher lead levels in their blood. (Note: The excretory half-life of lead in humans is 30 days.)